Galatians 5:26 - 6:5

Introduction:

-I came across an article on a blog site where the author was recounting a book written by a couple of Navy SEALS

-And there was one story in particular that stuck out to him:

As he tells it, Babin and his SEAL team were just returning to their combat outpost from a two-day mission in Ramadi, Iraq.  Tired, dirty, and hungry, he and his men entered the compound looking forward to a much-needed break.  

Just inside the outpost entrance was a semi-truck trailer containing thousands of sand bags.  A team of Soldiers were carrying those heavy bags, one at a time, up three flights of stairs, to reinforce a position on the roof top.  It was hot difficult work in the mid-day Iraqi sun.

The SEALS had finished their job; the Soldiers were doing theirs.  As an elite special operations force, the SEALs didn’t have to do anything but continue to walk.  But Babin relates that the idea of just walking by didn’t feel right. 

He recognized that these were the same Soldiers who supported the SEALs on their missions – they provided security, gave them a safe place to rest and refit, and were ready at a moments’ notice to send quick reaction teams to rescue the SEALs if they ever got into something they couldn’t handle.  He saw them as his brothers in arms; ignoring their toil just wouldn’t do.

The Soldier’s commander was there, so Babin offered to help.  The commander waved them off, thankful for the offer, “Ya’ll get some rest.  We’ll take care of the sandbags.”  Babin exchanged glances with his platoon chief, there was unspoken agreement, and then he responded, “Negative, we’ll help with the sandbags.”

He had his men drop their combat gear, and for the next 45 minutes they all pitched in to help carry the sandbags up three flights of stairs to the roof.  When they were done, they picked up their gear and headed off. 

As Babin writes, “Humility is essential to building strong relationships with others, both up and down the chain of command, as well as with supporting teams outside the immediate chain of command.”

-For the author of this blog, it wasn’t the gun battles or feats of heroism that stuck out to him about this book, it was this instance of humility

-If you noticed last week, I preached all the way to 5:25, leaving one verse remaining in the chapter

-The reason I didn’t finish the chapter is that I think that it serves rather well as an introduction, really the central idea for what Paul turns his attention to in the next several verses

-And it’s a matter of such importance, the he gives prolonged attention to it

-I think it’s safe to say that Paul views this issue as something that is absolutely vital to the relationship of God’s people to one another

And here’s Paul’s main concern that he now turns to:

The New King James Version Chapter 5

Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another.

-Now that Paul has vigorously defended both His Apostleship and His gospel of salvation by grace through faith against the false teachers that are teaching the church to rely on their ability to keep the Law . . .

-he now turns in these last couple of chapters to how this Gospel of grace ought to affect the way we live and the way we treat each other as Christians

-And we saw in the past couple of sermons that Paul vehemently denies that the true Gospel of Grace will lead to fleshly or lawless living

-Those who live consistently in lawless, fleshly living show themselves to be false professors of the faith who do not have the Spirit within them, and therefore will not inherit the kingdom of God

-And those who are truly saved won’t live lawlessly because their lives will be marked by the fruit of the Spirit, against which there is no Law!

And now, with that matter settled, Paul jumps into a very important section about the need for humility in our relationships with one another

-And verse 26 serves as the main idea of the passage, which Paul then fleshes out in the first 5 verses of chapter 6

-And God’s exhortation for us this evening is that we should not become conceited

-The word has the idea of boastful or proud

-Someone who has inflated themselves to the most important thing in the Universe

-Because when that happens, what follows is a Christian community full of provoking one another and envying one another

-In other words, as Paul said back in 5:13, we’ll bite and devour one another and be consumed by one another

-So Paul’s goal here in this section is to exhort us to godly humility in all aspects of our lives as the body of Christ

-And we’re going to see exactly how God desires us to walk in humility and how vital it is to strengthen the body of Christ

-There are 3 commands in this passage, and so my sermon is going to simply follow the structure of the text

-God is going to lay out these three commands, and show us how we are to humbly obey each of them

-And our obedient will response will help us to avoid becoming proud and doing damage to one another

**read text and pray**

1. Restore in Humility (6:1)

-God gives us the first of our commands

-And he does it through the pen of the Apostle Paul, who presents an if-then command

-Notice the “if” part of the clause: IF someone in your church gets caught in some kind of wrongdoing

-The word Paul uses there, the word “overtaken” is very interesting and has the idea of getting caught up in something or suddenly trapped or taken by surprise

**perhaps illustration of potential walmart fight**

**I wasn’t intending when I went to Walmart that evening to be the center of a fight, but it kind of overtook me!

**now obviously I wasn’t doing anything sinful, but the point is that this happens! Oftentimes Christians are not out looking for opportunities to sin

-But they get caught unawares and fall suddenly into the trap of sin

-A man who wasn’t looking to fall into pornography, but suddenly finds himself caught up in it during times of weakness

-A woman who’s not trying to be worried and anxious, but finds herself overtaken by it in hard times

-None of this it to make excuses for the sinning individual

-Sin is still sin, and that person is responsible for his or her own choices

-But it is to underscore the crafty nature of sin and how quickly it can trap us and keep us

-And when someone gets caught like this, Paul says, “you who are spiritual should restore such a person”

-Now, when we hear Paul say, “you who are spiritual,” we might be tempted to think that Paul is talking about the spiritual elite, the navy seals of the Christian faith

“This is something for the pastors or deacons to do, but not for the regular Christians like me”

-But remember, Paul’s been teaching us that all Christians have the Spirit and are growing in the fruits of the Spirit

-So when Paul says, “you who are spiritual,” he’s talking to all of us who are Christians!

“all of you who have the Spirit!”

-And the command for you, if you see that a fellow Christian is overtaken in sin, is to restore that brother or sister

-What does that mean, to restore someone?

-We know from other Scripture, especially Matthew 18, that we are to go to the sinning brother or sister and confront them over their sin and exhort them to repent and get right with the Lord

-Now, this goes completely against our individualistic American culture, where the only place that it’s appropriate to confront someone is on social media

-You can get into shouting matches and say horrible things to people on online, but other than that, we generally value other people’s privacy and their right to do what they want

-And we have slogans for this:

“live and let live”

“you do you”

-But brothers and sisters, as Christians, we belong to the kingdom of God where Christ reigns supreme, and He gets to tell His servants what they ought to do and how they ought to live

-And when servants of Christ get overtaken in sin, other servants of Christ’s are commanded to move towards them and to confront and restore them

However, this must be done is a humble way, and God gives two characteristics of how this is to be done in humility, not conceit

A. Gentleness

The first characteristic of humility, is that restoration must be done in a spirit of gentleness

-There is no place in the community of Christ for spiritual bullying or browbeating someone into submission

-We are not to come in guns blazing, ripping our brother or sister to shreds

-Rather, we must move towards the sinning Christian in gentleness

-What does that mean?

-First, that means that we ought to be well-thought out and gracious in the words that we use in confrontation, as well as the tone which we take

-We need to be careful not to hurl accusations or use words that are inappropriate to the occasion

-Furthermore, confrontation is not the totality of restoration

-Confrontation should also be coupled with encouragement, comfort, and help

-We must be ready to do whatever is necessary to help the sinning Christian get back to right fellowship with God and with others

-Brothers and sisters, this takes humility

-It’s a lot easier to either look at a Christian in sin and say, “not my problem” and let it go

-OR it’s easier to come in hot and just rip into someone for their sinful and selfish ways and how they’ve inconvenienced you

-It takes humility to confront someone in a gentle manner, and it’s that kind of Christlike humility that we’re called to

B. Watchfulness

But the second characteristic of humble restoration is watchfulness

-Paul tells us that as you restore a sinning Christian, you must be watchful

-Why?

-Because as you’re working to restore a sinning brother or sister, it’s really easy to fall into pride

-It’s easy in all the focus on the sin and troubles of the other person to think, “man, I’m sure glad I’m not like them!”

We can quickly slip into the mindset of the Pharisee in Luke 18, who boldly exclaimed, “Lord, thank you that I’m not like others!”

-Brothers and sisters, if you’re not careful, you could just as easily get overtaken in some sin, just like them

-Now, I want to be very clear with this, because I often hear this kind of reasoning as an excuse for Christians not to confront other Christians

-They say, “well, I’m not perfect. I need to focus on me before I try to help others. I need to pull the log out of my own eye first.”

-And we certainly do need to be watchful of ourselves and we need to make sure that we’re not also living in unrepentant sin while trying to point out the sins of others

-However, I think oftentimes we as Christians just use this kind of excuse to so that we don’t have to do the hard work of confronting others

-And brothers and sisters, that kind of attitude, an attitude of “I’m not going to confront this other Christians because I’m far from perfect” is a fake humility

-It’s sinful

-It’s rebellious against God’s command

-It’s unloving towards others

-And we need to repent of our excuse-making and be willing to do the hard work of restoring other people in genuine humility

-So first, brothers and sisters, walking in the Spirit means we restore in humility

but second . . .

2. Bear in Humility (6:2)

Notice God’s second command to us:

The New King James Version Chapter 6

Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.

-Now, what’s the connection to the previous verse?

-Perhaps he’s saying that when we confront others, we are participating in helping them bear their burdens

-And I would agree with this! Part of the way we help our brothers and sisters bear their burdens is through restoring them

-I would categorize these kinds of burdens as spiritual burdens that your brothers and sisters carry

-When you go to your brother or sister and in loving confrontation and seek to restore them, you’re not being the holiness gestapo

-You’re actually helping them bear the burden of their sin

However, I don’t think we should limit verse 2 simply to the command to restore other Christians

-I think this command from God is broader than just that

-I think it points to all kinds of ways that Christians can help bear each others burdens

-There are financial burdens that your brothers and sisters bear, that you can help carry

-paying for someone’s meal in between services

-hearing that someone in the church is having car problems and helping to pay for their car repairs

-There are emotional burdens that your brothers and sisters bear that you can help carry:

-The sadness of one of our young adults going through a breakup

-The heartbreak of one of our seniors losing their spouse

There are relational burdens that your brothers and sisters bear that you can help carry:

-the marital difficulties that someone is working through

-the tensions that a couple is experiencing with their rebellious teenager

-the angst and frustration that someone has in dealing with a stubborn, aging parent

And there are physical burdens that people carry:

-the draining battle of chemo in a fellow Christian’s battle against cancer

-the hardship of taking care of a chronically ill family member

-the struggles that come for older saints with aging

There are a myriad of burdens that our brothers and sisters bear, and you are commanded to help them bear those burdens!

-Now, let’s be honest for a second

-When you see the kinds of struggles that other Christians are going through (perhaps some of the various kinds that I mentioned), you love those Christians, and your heart goes out to them . . . it really does

-And you want to help! But you can look at some of the hardships and the messiness of these kinds of things, and couple that with how busy you are and sometimes you can be like, “. . . I don’t know if I can jump into that situation”

“I don’t know that I have the time to help, or the money, or the emotional stamina, or the expertise to know how to help that person in a sticky situation”

-And brothers and sisters, this is a struggle that all of us can have, and we need to really think through this biblically

-This idea of the fact that if I jump in to help bear someone else’s burdens, I’m going to be burdened down myself (whether financially, or with my time, or with something else) . . .

-That is inherent to bearing burdens!

**If someone has to carry in a cooler of soft drinks, and it weighs 80 pounds, and you come grab the other side of it, now you’ve both got 40 lbs**

-You’ve weighed yourself down in order to ease someone else’s load

-And brothers and sisters, this is the price we must pay in order to obey this command

-In order for you to help bear the burdens of your brothers and sisters, it will cost you time!

-It will cost you money!

-It will cost you some emotional and relational and spiritual fatigue!

-It’s a humbling task!

-Why should you be willing to pay that price to bear others burdens?

-because this fulfills the Law of Christ!

-What does that mean?

-Paul has spent a lot of time talking about the Law and how we’re not under the Law and how it cannot save us

-What does he mean that bearing the burdens of our brothers and sisters fulfills the Law of Christ?

-I think we get pointed in the right direction by the context

-Look back a few verses at 5:14

Galatians 5:14 “For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”

So even though we’re not under the Law and it can’t save us, the Law still teaches us

-And in regards to our relationship to others, the whole Law boils down to this: love your neighbor as yourself

-So back in our text, when Paul says that bearing the burdens fulfills the Law of Christ, he’s saying something similar, but he’s viewing it through a Christological lens

-Christ is the fulfillment of the OT Law!

-Everything that the Law was trying to teach us boils down to:

-love God with all your heart

-and love your neighbor as yourself

-And Christ was the perfect embodiment of that!

-No one has ever loved God supremely like Christ did

-And furthermore, no one has ever loved others more selflessly and sacrificially than Christ has

-He humbled Himself, took on human flesh, and died in the place of sinners to bear the ultimate burden that weighs us all down — the burden of sin

-And if Christ was willing to burden himself with the loads of others, how can we possibly refuse to do the same?

-How can we look at the burdens of our brothers and sisters and decide the price is too high to pay, when Christ was willing to pay the ultimate price?

-Brothers and sisters, God is commanding you to humble yourself and make the costly decisions necessary to help bear the burden of your brothers and sisters, and in so doing, fulfill the Law which Christ so perfectly embodied

-Let me urge you, move towards your brothers and sisters and help them bear their burdens in humility

-give of your time to help someone with a project at their house or to help watch their kids

-give of your money to help meet the financial needs of a brother or sister who needs it

-give a listening ear to those in our church who need a friend

-give a kind word to those who need encouragement

-give a shoulder to cry on to the sorrowful

-Brothers and sisters, humble yourself and bear the burdens of others!

-So first, we see that we are to restore in humility

-Second, we see that we are to bear in humility

-And lastly . . .

3. Examine in Humility (6:3-5)

Paul begins verse 3 with the word “for,” meaning that he’s connecting it directly with verse two

-however, at first glance, it’s not exactly clear how these two verses are connected

The New King James Version Chapter 6

For if anyone thinks himself to be something, when he is nothing, he deceives himself.

How is that idea connected with bearing the burdens of others?

-I think what Paul is saying is that there is something that could prevent you from being willing to bear someone else’s burdens, and that is pride . . . thinking too highly of yourself

-You see, no matter how good you are at your job

-No matter how likeable you are

-No matter how gifted you are or how smart you are

-You never graduate from the responsibility of bearing the burdens of your brothers and sisters

-And you and I need to be careful that we don’t begin to think that we’ve arrived

-That we’re too good or important to help others

-Furthermore, we need to be careful that we don’t begin to rest ourselves upon our previous spiritual accomplishments

**I was talking recently to a pastor friend of mine, and he was talking about some people in a ministry he used to be apart of

**And communicated to me something to the effect of, “You know, these people seem to place a lot of stock in past spiritual accomplishments . . . but they don’t realize that they’re not really being faithful and growing much in the Lord right now.”

-And brothers and sisters, it’s entirely possible for you as a Christian to think you’re a something, and in actuality, be a nothing

-And lest you think I’m being too harsh, let me remind you that I don’t write the mail, I just deliver it

-That’s God’s evaluation, not mine,

-We need to be careful, because we can become deceived and think we’re a lot further along than we are, and it affects how we treat each other and whether we’re willing to jump into the pit and help bear the burdens of others

Paul builds on that, and gives us our third and final command here in chapter 6:

The New King James Version Chapter 6

But let each one examine his own work, and then he will have rejoicing in himself alone, and not in another.

-What does this mean?

-So let’s start with the command:

-Each Christian ought to examine his own work

-Now, this makes perfect sense in light of what we’ve just read in vs. 3

-None us of wants to deceive ourselves

-None of us wants to think we’re a something when we’re a nothing

-So we ought to take time to examine the fruit of our lives

-What kinds of things should we examine?

-Well, just for starters, we can consider the immediate context of the past several verses:

-How does my life stack up with the fruit of the Spirit? Am I growing in Christlike character?

-Am I walking in conceit and thereby provoking and envying others, or am I walking in humility?

-Am I restoring others in a spirit of gentleness and watchfulness?

-Am I bearing the burdens of others?

-And by the way, it’s ok for you to examine yourself in certain areas and come back encouraged!

-I’m sure there are many people here who excel in a lot of these areas:

-You’re seeking to be faithful to the Word, and prayer, and to being in church and serving others

-But these are good areas for us to examine!

-We’ll never be perfect at these, but we ought to try to be faithful

-Perhaps even ask another brother or sister here who knows you, “hey, am I being faithful to the Lord in my life? Do you see patterns of faithfulness?”

-And notice what Paul says next

-The purpose of this is so you’ll have rejoicing in yourself alone, and not in another, for each one shall bear his own load

-Now, Paul isn’t telling us to brag about our accomplishments or be puffed up in pride about our good works

-That would be contrary to everything he’s said in Galatians so far

-Rather, he’s pointing out that one day when you stand before God, you’ll be assessed on the basis of your works, and not someone else’s accomplishments!

-And this is kind of what we heard this past Sunday!

-Each person will be evaluated by God based on their own works and faithfulness

-And this makes sense of verse 5, which could almost sound like a contradiction to what Paul just said about helping bear others’ burdens

-He’s not contradicting himself, but instead he’s pointing to the reality the coming judgment

-How do we know that? Look at verse 4 and 5

“he WILL have rejoicing in himself alone”

“each one SHALL bear his own load”

-Both of those verbs are future, meaning Paul is speaking about a future reality

Brothers and sisters, when you stand before God one day, it will be you and only you

-It’s not like a group project where you can ride the coattails of the smart person in the group who does all the work

-You won’t be able to claim the good works of your husband

-Or your wife

-Or your parents

-Or your pastors

-Or your deacons

-Or your church

You will have to stand before God and give an account for your own faithfulness or lack thereof

-We might live in a culture given over to victimhood and blame-shifting now, but that will not work when we stand before God!

-You will be evaluated before God based on your choices

-So, evaluate yourself in humility now

-Don’t have a distorted and over-inflated view of yourself

-Don’t think that your intelligence or likeability is what God will evaluate you on

-And don’t think that your past accomplishments make it ok to be slack in your service to the Lord today

-Examine your own work, and then you’ll be able to rejoice before the Lord in what He has accomplished in you

Closing

-in the same way that even a Navy Seal could recognize the importance of humbly serving others, Christians have even more reason to see how humility is vital to our functioning as the body of Christ

That brings us back to 5:26

The New King James Version Chapter 5

Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another.

-Brothers and sisters, let me exhort you to live in humility:

-to humbly restore other Christians

-to humbly bear the burdens of others

-and to humbly examine yourself